Personal Development on Communion

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Creator God, you created us in your

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Creator God, you created us in your image. You are three in one. From before time began, you existed in perfect communion. Yet day by day, we choose not to live into your image. We choose division, po...

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N. T. Wright

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The present moment (‘whenever’) somehow holds together the one-off past event (‘the Lord’s death’) and the great future when God’s world will be remade under Jesus’ loving rule (‘until he comes’).

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Gracious and loving God, you invite us

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Chip Hardwick

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Gracious and loving God, you invite us to the table, yet we resist your grace. It is sometimes easier to float around outside of the Christian community than it is to invest fully in it. You invite ot...

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Alexander Schmemann

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Eucharist [thanksgiving] is the state of the perfect man. Eucharist is the life of paradise. Eucharist is the only full and real response of man to God’s creation, redemption, and gift of heaven.

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Good Father, we thank you for inviting

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Austin D. Hill

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Good Father, we thank you for inviting us to your table. You invite us to your heavenly feast, but we don’t show up to the party. Rather, we ignore your invitation, we get distracted by other work we ...

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We thank you, God our Father, that by

We thank you, God our Father, that by your grace, mercy and love, expressed today in Word and Sacrament, You give us Your Son, the true bread from heaven and the fountain of living water. Strengthen u...

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Come to the Table

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Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

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Scripture

Matthew 11:28-30, Revelation 19:9, Psalm 23:5-6, Isaiah 55:1-2, Luke 14:16-17, Luke 22:19-20, John 6:35, Psalm 34:8, Isaiah 25:6, Matthew 22:2-4, Proverbs 9:5-6

In the midst of all you are facing Your burdens Your responsibilities Your hustle Hear the invitation “Come to the Table” In the midst of all you are facing Your longing Your ambition Your distractio...

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Lord God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit:

Author

Richard Herman

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Ephesians 3:16-17, Micah 6:8, James 1:27, Matthew 25:40, Psalm 23:1-3, Proverbs 3:5-6, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Lord God–Father, Son and Holy Spirit: we hear your Word and sing your praises. We meet at the Table and partake of your Sacrament–the gospel made visible. You call us to yourself, and you send us out ...

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Great God our Father, Savior and Holy

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Richard Herman

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Great God our Father, Savior and Holy Spirit: Our hearts are filled with gratitude for your grace and faithfulness. Thank you for caring about those who we care about–for those who are sick or injured...

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God of our hearts, Lord of nations and

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Richard Herman

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God of our hearts, Lord of nations and Creator of worlds; Father, Son and Holy Spirit: When You redeemed us and called us each by name, You made us a family—united by your love and grace. Across towns...

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Rachel Held Evans

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Millennials aren't looking for a hipper Christianity. We're looking for a truer Christianity, a more authentic Christianity. Like every generation before ours and every generation after, we...

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Hearing the Confessions of the Poor

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Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

John 13:14-15, James 2:13, Isaiah 58:7, Matthew 5:3, Psalm 34:18, Luke 7:47-48

Angela’s Ashes took the publishing world by storm when it was released in September 1996. It won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in the category of Biography/Autobiography. It was also a...

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A.W. Pink

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Real prayer is communion with God, so that there will be common thoughts between His mind and ours. What is needed is for Him to fill our hearts with His thoughts, and then His desires will become our...

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Prayers of the People, Form V

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Luke 15:11-32, Psalm 51:10, 1 John 1:9, Psalm 103:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:18, John 17:21, Ephesians 4:3-6

Deacon or other leader In peace, let us pray to the Lord, saying, "Lord, have mercy" ( or "Kyrie eleison"). For the holy Church of God, that it may be filled with truth and lov...

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Brother Lawrence

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I still believe that all spiritual life consists of practicing God’s presence, and that anyone who practices correctly will soon attain spiritual fulfillment… There is no sweeter manner of living in t...

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We praise and thank you, O Lord, that

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Psalm 119:103, Luke 22:19, Psalm 34:18, 1 Timothy 2:1-2, Matthew 28:19-20, John 14:16-17, Matthew 6:9-13, Numbers 6:24-26, Matthew 25:36, Psalm 33:12, Romans 8:26, Acts 1:8, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Acts 2:42

We praise and thank you, O Lord, that you have fed us with your Word [and at your table]. Grateful for your gifts and mindful of the communion of your saints, we offer to you our prayers for all pe...

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Great and loving God, we know that one

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Chip Hardwick

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Great and loving God, we know that one day all peoples will worship you on your mountain. We struggle to live into that reality. We turn inward, thinking mostly of ourselves rather than giving you glo...

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Freedom vs. Independence

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Bill Tell

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“Christianity promises to make man free,” Anglican priest William R. Inge writes; “it never promises to make them independent.” Freedom and independence are polar opposites. The former leads to wellne...

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Colossians 1:9b-12

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Scripture

Colossians 1:9

May you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work ...

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Author

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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Scripture

John 4:7-26, John 21:15-19, Matthew 9:9-13, Mark 10:17-22, Matthew 16:24-25, Romans 6:1-2, James 2:17

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace ...

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Identity and Pastors: Struggle, Success, and the Silent Battle

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Geoffrey V. Dudley

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"Not Against Flesh and Blood..." There is an unspoken battle that every pastor faces—a battle not against flesh and blood , nor merely against the seen forces of ministry challenges, but...

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The Sacrament of the Present Moment

Author

Andrew Arndt

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Is God really “in” all things? And would it matter if the answer was “yes” or “no”? How? Jean-Pierre de Caussade was an 18th century French Jesuit preacher, theologian, and spiritual director who t...

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One Dark Night: A Deeper Work of God

Author

Alan Fadling

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Scripture

Psalm 27:1, Isaiah 50:10, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, Romans 8:18, James 1:2-4, Isaiah 50:10

[These thoughts come from a journal entry of about 10 years ago when I was experiencing a deep and dark night of faith] I have found insight and wisdom for my journey with Christ in the writings of J...

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T. S. Eliot

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Old men ought to be explorers Here and there does not matter We must be still and still moving Into another intensity For another union, a deeper communion.

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Author

Mike Cosper

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A life of prayer, fasting, and spiritual disciplines can easily be a life of empty religious effort if the goal isn’t communion with God. We don’t need self-improvement; we need to come home.

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The Meeting Place of Deep Intentionality and Self-Forgetting

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In his prose and poetry, David Whyte shares what David Brooks refers to as “emotional joy” in his book, While not necessarily unique to the Christian, this type of joy has the ability to draw us towar...

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Author

Brennan Manning

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Authentic faith leads us to treat others with unconditional seriousness and to a loving reverence for the mystery of the human personality. Authentic Christianity should lead to maturity, personality,...

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Author

Stephen Bevans and Roger Schroeder

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God’s very nature is to be in dialogue: [the Trinity] in an eternal movement or flow of openness and receiving, a total giving and accepting, spilling over into creation and calling creation back into...

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Behind You 1000%

Author

Dan Allender

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Young men in his church were expected to pray aloud in Communion Services. So the young Larry Crabb felt pressured to pray, even though he had a problem with stuttering. He remembers offering a terrib...

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Author

Oswald Chambers

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Scripture

1 Kings 19:12, Romans 8:26, John 14:15-17, John 3:8, 1 Kings 19:11-12

The voice of the Spirit is as gentle as a zephyr… So gentle that unless you are living in perfect communion with God, you never hear it.

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